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Shaun Suishamsigns his tender, meaning that he’s actually on the roster and that no other team can offer him a deal.

A very interesting thread on TheWarpath.net trying to give a grade to the Redskins 2006 draft class. Four regular contributors — although no superstars — from rounds 2-6, in Rocky McIntosh, Anthony Montgomery, Reed Doughty, and Kedric Golston, plus two seventh-rounders who never did much. I think I’d give a solid B on that, actually; it’s certainly better than average, but I don’t think you can give an A without a really game-changing player.

Like this:

Another player, another two-minute long media session on the opening day of offseason conditioning. Despite initial reports that he’d be in Arizona or otherwise not here, Derrick Dockery chatted briefly with the media, and discussed getting the old gang back together and what he expects from practicing against Albert Haynesworth.

Our friends at the Red Zone noticed at the bottom of an article about the Redskins’ offseason workout program a mention of the fact that star running back Clinton Portis is expected to be a no-show for Day One.

“I fully expect him to be here participating at some point,” coach Jim Zorn said, according to the Washington Post. “I talked to Clinton on the phone yesterday, and he knows what it means. He’s just trying to work out his schedule. He’s been working out his schedule.”

Yeah, it’s hard to “work out his schedule” with more than two months off since the last day of work.

But here’s the thing: Clinton Portis was absolutely here today — I saw him myself — and, according to the people I asked, he did indeed work out. (I asked in case he had dropped by for some other, unrelated reason, although I really can’t think of what that might’ve been.) Sure, it’s not nearly on the level of declaring Terry Bradshaw dead, but it’s still a little peculiar. That said, the Albert Haynesworth photoshop he links to is actually kinda funny.

Fred Smoot took a few minutes to chat with the assembled media about offseason conditioning, roster moves, the absence of Shawn Springs, and all that good stuff. At the very least, it was longer and more in-depth than Casey Rabach’s appearance earlier.

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But Smoot’s main excitement wasn’t for workouts, or for the continuity of a second year under Jim Zorn, or for anything like that — it was for the Mississippi State basketball team’s SEC Championship win and berth in the NCAA tournament. “Y’all should’ve been asking me about that,” Smoot said as he left the room. Tough to argue with. Read more »

The offseason conditioning program starts today. What this means, basically, is that the players come in and do non-football workouts — running, weight-training, stuff like that — as a group, instead of on their own. No practices, no drills, just the soft-launch of the season.

But players are back in the building, which starts to build excitement for the season, so the media is back as well, at least for today.

And how could they not be, when there are opportunities for exciting player Q&A sessions! For example, Casey Rabach. He’s generally known as a good talker, an entertaining interview, and a quick-witted soundbite, so he was pulled into the media room for this scintillating and informative exchange: Read more »